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Anti-Trump Super PAC Claims Complaint Filed Against James Comey Over E-Mail Investigation

Just hours after FBI Director James Comey announced a development in the Clinton e-mail server investigation, an anti-Trump Super PAC announced a complaint against Comey.

Published Oct. 28, 2016

On 28 October 2016, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey confirmed that new information had led to a revisitation of an investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of e-mail at the State Department; hours later, an anti-Trump Super PAC claimed they filed a complaint with the Department of Justice (DOJ) against Comey for interfering with an election.

As we reported earlier, news of Comey's letter came via Rep. Jason Chaffetz and WikiLeaks on the afternoon on 28 October 2016. Within hours, the PAC (known as the Keep America Great PAC or the Democratic Coalition Against Trump) announced it had filed a complaint against Comey with the DOJ:

Widely cited on social media was a press release issued by the PAC, which read:

Washington, D.C. - October 28, 2016 - The Democratic Coalition Against Trump filed a complaint with the Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility on Friday against FBI Director James Comey for interfering in the Presidential election, following the FBI’s decision to open up an investigation into Secretary Clinton’s emails this close to Election Day. Federal employees are forbidden from participating in political activities under the Hatch Act. “It is absolutely absurd that FBI Director Comey would support Donald Trump like this with only 11 days to go before the election,” said Scott Dworkin, Senior Advisor to the Democratic Coalition Against Trump. “It is an obvious attack from a lifelong Republican who used to serve in the Bush White House, just to undermine her campaign. Comey needs to focus on stopping terrorists and protecting America, not investigating our soon to be President-Elect Hillary Clinton.”

Comey is not the first person to be threatened with legal action by the PAC. A pinned tweet on the organization's Twitter page indicated that the group "filed ... [a] domestic terrorism complaint" with the FBI against former congressman Joe Walsh:

On 15 October 2016, the group claimed it filed a separate complaint against former Donald Trump campaign advisor Roger Stone for "cyberterrorism" with respect to his alleged prior knowledge of WikiLeaks releases:

The Democratic Coalition Against Trump lodged a complaint for cyber-terrorism and treason against Roger Stone and the Trump campaign for their likely involvement with WikiLeaks, and working with a foreign government to influence American elections. Stone had fair warning before the most recent emails were released, and predicted back in August that Podesta would be at the center of the next string of hacks.

The text of the complaint filed with the FBI can be found below:

We are requesting that the FBI immediately look into the connection between Roger Stone and the Trump campaign and the recent hacking of emails, likely conducted by the Russian government. We believe that Roger Stone had forewarning of the hack, based on a statement he made in August 2016 that Podesta's emails would be next, and that he and the campaign have been working with a foreign government to influence an American election.

We contacted Francesca Lucia, National Finance Director for the Democratic Coalition Against Trump, to inquire whether the complaint had actually been filed or whether the release simply indicated an intent to prepare and lodge such a motion. Lucia stated that the complaint was in fact filed by mail, but we were unable to otherwise verify whether it had been mailed or when the DOJ could conceivably receive or act upon it.

Lucia forwarded a copy of the "complaint" to us, which simply appeared to be a letter requesting the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility investigate Comey for potential political motivations:

DCATLettertoDoJReJamesComeyInvestigation__1__pdf

Kim LaCapria is a former writer for Snopes.